Life is empty and meaningless. Meanings are invented by ourselves. And only what has passed the test of objective factors—space, time, and continuity—is considered real. EVERYTHING else (which can only be subjectively tested for reality)—feelings, forecasts, fears, hopes, anxieties—is deemed unreal.
What makes us truly unhappy is ALWAYS only what’s in our heads—our “stories” and “bugs.” Objective reality can never make us unhappy. It can only prompt action if it’s a reality we’re dissatisfied with—then there’s room for creating a new reality. A new reality is created from the possibilities we create ourselves, realizing that life is empty and meaningless: realizing the concept of emptiness, we understand that the only thing possible in this emptiness is our creative construction of life.
So what makes us happy is always objective reality, awareness. The same awareness, only in the absence of awareness of the “consequences”—the pictures painted for us by our imagination toward negativity—there’s no negative future anymore. There’s only the future we can create ourselves. And from this can only arise inspiration, delight, and what’s called a transformation that colors that very objective reality (“given to us in sensations”) with incredible hues.
“Given to us in sensations” is the factor of life, the classical philosophical definition we often forget. And the main factor from this definition is “objective” reality! Not subjective. Objective reality is nature, the beauty created by people, people themselves, life! Simply the fact of all this—objective reality—it all evokes a state of happiness.
To live, not just survive, means to guide oneself in life by what you love, by the possibilities you can create for yourself and the world, not by ensuring safety. Not by solely focusing on earning daily bread; sustenance will come. The main thing is to create this world, yourself, life, self-construction every day, every minute. Your movement, Improvisers, resonates deeply with me because it’s a pure embodiment of my philosophy—a challenge to mere survival, a challenge to earning money for a “comfortable” existence, a challenge to stagnation and mediocrity, a challenge to bargaining with oneself and adaptability, a challenge to fitting into the matrix… A challenge to the absence of challenge…
Everything is an illusion. Whether we are loved or not. The most rational approach is to regard as true only that which is real. It’s easy to check for “reality”: what exists in space, time, and continuity is real. A fly in a glass is real. The chair you’re sitting on is real. The air you breathe is real. But love—it’s not tangible, it can’t be tested. Anything that fails to meet the criteria of universal reality but passes individual reality tests—such as feelings, experiences, senses, and visual assessments—is considered unreal. Therefore, an illusion. But concerning illusions is pointless.
Regarding happiness, no tangible reality can bestow or revoke it—only that illusory realm, which is not worth fretting over. Once you realize that these unpleasant sensations stem from mundane thoughts, you can navigate through them and move on without dwelling on the discomfort.
What to do when experiencing negative emotions, for example, fear?
The simplest thing is to understand that any negative sensations are caused by the “stories” our consciousness invents to scare us and keep us away from “dangerous” life situations. As soon as you realize that all these unpleasant sensations are caused by ordinary “blah-blah” of consciousness, you can easily pass through and leave them behind, without delving into the feeling and causing yourself more pain. Realizing the unreality of what we’re experiencing makes the experience meaningless.
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